Bad Dreams

(warning for dead body grossness)

Leonardo made his way through the lair, double-checking everything before bedtime as he always did, routinely assuring that all of his brothers and sensei were doing all right and would be ready for another full day of ninjaing in the morning.

His first stop was the sofa, where he tugged the game controller out of his youngest brother's protesting, stiff hands and shut the TV off. "Time for bed, Mikey. No more video games." Mikey's bare skull clacked, tilting to one side, the single remaining scrap of decaying skin dangling from beneath his orange mask. "I don't want to hear it, you've been staying up way too late," Leo chastised.

Leo moved on somberly through the quiet of the lair, opening the door to Raphael's room, where the cacophony of disturbed flies greeted him. Raph lay face down on his hammock, one maggot-ridden arm hanging limp over the side. A few of them spilled down, wriggling, onto the floor. "G'night, Raph," Leo said warmly, as if not wanting to wake him. "Sorry about the fight earlier." He closed the door, shutting the flies in behind him.

In Donatello's lab, he found his mostly skeletonized genius brother slumped over his keyboard. A pair of rats, having torn off bits of him, scampered away into the far recesses of the room. Leo tiptoed toward him. "Ah, Donnie… You're always working too hard for us. I'm worried you'll work yourself to death one of these days." He picked up a blanket from the nearby medical cot and draped it over the skeleton's shell, then left.

After that, he headed to Master Splinter's quarters to make sure his father was situated for the night. Leo took his father's desiccated husk of a body and moved it from the Lotus position it had been seated in to lay it on the nearby futon, placing the arm that had detached itself days ago across Splinter's sunken chest. For a moment he stopped to ponder what April had been screaming about when she entered the lair earlier. None of it made any sense. "Dead! Leo, what are you doing?! They're all DEAD!" But that wasn't true. His brothers and father were fine, same as they always had been, safe and sound at home. Albeit, the lair had been a bit quieter lately… He shrugged off the notion. How ridiculous. Something was wrong with their human friend… She must have gone crazy. She was ranting that he was crazy, but that was a lie. He would know if he was crazy, wouldn't he? And he was perfectly fine. She was the one who was off in the head. He'd have to look into it later. He sighed. "Good night, father. Sleep well."

He lay in his own bed, staring at the ceiling for a long time. He didn't want to stay here any longer… the whole place stank of death and decay, and April accusing him didn't add to the atmosphere either. He just couldn't figure out why it'd gotten so bad lately. If not for his brothers, he'd consider leaving, maybe going to South America…

x-x-x-x-x

Leonardo sat up in a cold sweat. What a nightmare! He'd dreamed his whole family was dead, for what looked like months, and that he was batshit insane and simply taking care of their remains as if they were still alive! He shook his head to clear it, then noticed how late he'd overslept and jumped to his feet.

" 'Morning, Mikey!" he called as he passed the youngest on his way to Don's lab. Mikey grinned back at him.

Shoving the door open, Leo found Don seated in his computer chair, though it was hard to tell by his dark eyes if he'd been there overnight or had gotten there early. "Don, I'd like you to give me a check-up later on… I might have a fever. I had a weird dream last night, and I was wondering if you could tell me what it means." Don's jaw dropped as if in surprise, but Leo left it at that and headed for the kitchen for breakfast. Just wanting something light, he opted for an apple, set the kettle to boil for his and Master Splinter's morning tea, and pensively petted Klunk, who was lying on the counter. She was getting scrawny… Mikey needed to feed her more.

Usually Raph was up by now, and something niggled at Leo about it. Things seemed off. He headed to his hotheaded brother's room and shook him out of his hammock. "Wake up, Raph…" There was a sickening squish and a cracking noise, and Raph's head detached from his body, making a splut as it hit the floor and decaying gray matter spilled out one empty eye socket.

Leo huffed at his brother's noncompliance. "Rude…"

a/n: I'm aware there's other fics similar to this out there. I hope this isn't too derivative. It's not my intent to copy them, so if I've done so, it's somewhat subconsciously. How common is this trope? Let me know if you know of similar fics by name... I'm curious. ;)